Sad you lost your bees, I hope you do let us know what happened when you get your results back as it would be educational for us all on here.
Sad you lost your bees, I hope you do let us know what happened when you get your results back as it would be educational for us all on here.
Hi Bridget
I have a big stack of used frames which took a lot of effort and time to clean
Cutting out black wax, steaming them ,cleaning all the grooves, scrubbing them etc
I Should have used them to light the fire instead
On balance I think its easier to just to buy some brood frames because the new wax slides in easily
The super ones will clean with a bit of steam though no trouble
Sad loss, yes, Bridget - but the combination of your photos and C4U's detailed reply was interesting. Like Madasafish, I thought the dripping brood comb was ominous - so, I've learned.
Kitta
Yes Greengage, one of the reasons I posted all the photos was because I hoped it might be of interest, as well as shedding some light on what was happening.Originally Posted by Greengage
Steve Sutherland, the big chief bee inspector who I contacted about the dead bees going to SASA said they were expecting a lot of Nosema after the Autumn and winter we were having. He didn't explain why though!
Yes I'll let you know the results when I get them back
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I have a steam oven that's hardly used .....now there's a thought!Hi Bridget
I have a big stack of used frames which took a lot of effort and time to clean
Cutting out black wax, steaming them ,cleaning all the grooves, scrubbing them etc
I Should have used them to light the fire instead
On balance I think its easier to just to buy some brood frames because the new wax slides in easily
The super ones will clean with a bit of steam though no trouble
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Looks like dysentry or nosema, combs have been robbed out at some time, the brown messy stuff could be fermenting pollen. Very small cluster of bees, perhaps the severe cold caused a state of isolation starvation. I'd say that the process of dwindling has been going on for some time else all bees would be dead in the cluster and not on the floor to that extent. Did you rear the queen yourself, it might not have mated properly or not from good breeding stock - lot of queens last season had problems mating, even the experts were reporting the same.
Got an old metal bin or the likes? (Maybe even an old Burco boiler around somewhere? For small scale work they are perfect)
Chop the old combs out of the frames and set aside for melting.
Half fill bin or tank or whatever with water and add a kilo or so of washing soda (under a pound from Tesco) and bring to the boil (using a gas burner?)
Immerse the whole frames for a couple of minutes in the boiling mix, take out, wash down to take off any scum, and allow to dry. PERFECT job, the grooves will all be clear and also under the wedge bar, even all the propolis is gone. Wax slides in just as if the frame was new.
Last edited by Calluna4u; 24-02-2016 at 10:41 AM.
Im off to boil all mine again with washing soda this time
I see black cells with shiny black deposits in the bottom..
Ok so I can enlarge the pic using my phone and I don't see bees with heads in cells as I originally thought. But I think the reflections are from stores in cells built on black comb. In any case Bridget is having a sample of the dead bees tested so fingers crossed for a non-sinister outcome.
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